


Those Who Fight

by sanctum_c



Series: Tifa Week 2020 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25269664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Tifa had known Aeris Gainsborough for perhaps fifteen minutes before they first got into a fight.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Tifa Lockhart
Series: Tifa Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827742
Kudos: 19





	Those Who Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt '”Don’t think that I’m not strong. I’m the one to take you on. Don’t underestimate me boy, I’ll make you sorry you were born. ” - don’t call me baby by madison avenue.'

Tifa had known Aeris Gainsborough for perhaps fifteen minutes before they first got into a fight.

Not with each other; with a group of low-level hoodlums with some distinctly archaic views on the notion of personal space.

First impressions had not fallen into place. Aeris was another girl – about the same age as Tifa. Here with Cloud for reasons beyond the scope of their limited conversations to explain. Here also to audition for the Don but as a pretext to reach Tifa. And somewhere in this whole, strange process, Cloud had gained a make-up job second to none and a dress he looked divine in.

The past would have been so much different if she’d acted differently, but oh to be there. To see the tangled chain of connections, coincidences and decisions resulting in the delivery of Aeris Gainsborough to this location at this time.

And perhaps- Knowing the chain might make her not feel so odd?

Not that Aeris seemed odd. Friendly, chirpy, happy, and astonishingly willing to commit to an action. To have procured her dress, her hair so carefully styled, her make-up perfect. To have figured out (somehow) Cloud could pass off as the third candidate for the audition. She stuck to her plans.

But there was something else-

The notion Aeris could catch the look in Tifa’s eye, to understand the meaning behind Tifa’s words to the ringleader of this rabble’s was not odd. That they should not/would not/could not be damsels in distress was something no woman who spent anything more than a week in Midgar would have trouble grasping. Aeris could fight. Not in doubt.

Subtle musculature in her arms indicated she was far from weak. She whipped a rug out from under one guy’s feet without issue and brought a chair down hard enough to knock him out.

Resourceful, imaginative. Good at improvisation.

But. There was something else.

The way Aeris moved to guard Tifa’s blind spots; when Tifa moved to check them, Aeris was already in place ready for an opponent. The ease with which they ducked and weaved around each other. Tifa kept track of Aeris’s location but never needed to. Aeris was never at risk of a misplaced kick or punch.

New. New and so strange. Some synergy developed between her, Cloud and Barret prior to the attack on Reactor Five. They were more in sync, but still faced idiosyncrasies, the occasional fumbled moment. A duck from a sword blow, a punch, an all too close burst of gunfire. Fighting with Aeris belied the notion either the woman was supernaturally prescient or somehow gave the impression she had fought alongside Tifa for whole months at a time.

The situation was odd. But odd in how natural, how graceful and how easy fighting alongside Aeris felt.

More oddities in the aftermath; fighting in their audition dresses might be fine for spur of the moment, but so much better to be back in comfortable clothes to confront Don Corneo. Impossible not to remain nervous once Leslie stepped out the door; Aeris seemed uninhibited, shucking her dress to the floor before pulling the intricately woven ribbons from her hair.

No embarrassment, no shame; she carefully folded her dress away half-naked. But she also never chivvied Tifa along; instead she extracted Tifa’s clothes from the bag and pointedly faced away from Tifa while she changed. Kept her back to Tifa the whole time she undressed. This was not the time for privacy and shyness – and yet Aeris provided it without prompting or request.

Somehow, effortlessly, Aeris was slipping into a space in Tifa’s life never clearly there before. And it should be odd. It should be strange how easy and comfortable all this felt. But to protest felt odder still. Perhaps when this was over – perhaps she might be able to stop and figure all this out. An unlooked for friend out of nowhere.

Incredible; focused so much on Aeris – and almost no consideration to Cloud’s own impossible feat and surviving a three hundred meter fall down into the slums. He did not look so much as bruised. Had Aeris had something to do with this miracle too? A shake of her head.

Boots and gloves in place. Materia set. Questions later. After they rescued Cloud of course.


End file.
